Sunday, December 28, 2014

ObamaCare and the Individual Mandate

A new Kaiser poll finds that 64 percent of Americans unfavorably view the individual mandate—the provision that requires nearly every American to purchase health insurance or else pay a fine. This is no surprise because the individual mandate has always been one of the most politically toxic parts of ObamaCare. You’ll notice that the Obama administration has stayed silent about the unpopular provision in their enrollment push to avoid backlash. Read more here...

A government with moral and legal authority promulgates written rules and universally, impartially and uniformly enforces the rules, which provides a predictable and stable legal order on which to base economic and personal decisions. The law prevails, not the proclamation or arbitrary decision of a ruler, government bureaucrat, the enforcer (e.g., policeman) or judge.Read more here...

The outrageous tax increases that would have been required to make Vermont's proposed single-payer healthcare program a reality forced Gov. Peter Shumlin to pull the plug after years of planning.

In May 2011, Shumlin, a Democrat, signed legislation into law that established a government-run, taxpayer-financed healthcare system that would provide coverage to all residents of Vermont. "In Vermont we are pursuing a plan that we think will control healthcare costs, not just by cutting fees to doctors and hospitals, but by fundamentally changing the state's healthcare system. I have launched an ambitious effort, with support from the Vermont legislature, to implement a single payer system in Vermont,"Shumlin wrote in an August 2011 editorial at the Huffington Post. "Under the plan, single payer coverage will be a right and not a privilege, and will not be connected to employment." Read more here...

The many ways that ObamaCare has hurt people is well documented. Us humans are not the only ones that the bureaucratic monstrosity has negatively impacted, though.

Fido and Fluffy have also taken a hit.

Prepare to budget more money for your pet’s vet visits, if you haven’t already. This is because ObamaCare contains a 2.3 percent tax on certain medical devices including IV fluid pumps, endoscopes and cardiac monitors which are commonly used by veterinarians. Read more here...

The "CRomnibus" government funding bill passed handily last weekend, but not before Senators Lee and Cruz had their say. In a controversial move, the two senators managed to put their colleagues on record voting for or against funding President Obama's latest unconstitutional executive power grab. Many Republican senators, however, protest too much, claiming that Lee and Cruz may have allowed the Democrats to pass a number of executive nominees because of their insistence upon making their point.Read more here...

Following the lead of the Rev. Al Sharpton, thousands of protesters have taken to the streets to protest grand jury decisions regarding the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and physical restraint death of Eric Garner in New York, by white police officers.

With chants of “Black lives matter” and “No justice, no peace,” demonstrators are expressing their frustration with what they regard as a system gamed against black Americans. Underlying the social unrest is a weak economic recovery that has left blacks behind. Blacks have the highest unemployment rate, the lowest average income and the lowest rate of homeownership. Read more here...

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